I’m a inactive licensed broker and have my license for my personal investments, primarily to research properties and be able to move quickly on them w/o a buy-side agent.
I am of the opinion that agents on both the buy and sell side will never go away. The analogies of the stock broker, recruiter, and accountants for that matter are very relevant, and I agree with them completely.
That said, in this market, I think the value of a good listing agent is enormous. Marketing, networking, and professionalism is tantamount in this market, and I’ve seen a good agent pay more than their worth in higher prices, quicker sales, and the simple equation of the value of my time.
The thing I am hoping does go away is the MLS. It’s a monopolistic and old-school approach in this day of data democratization. I think we’re starting to see this with the CALMLS initiative and other concepts like Google Base and Roost.com. Time will tell, but MLS consolidation and their future irrelevance is in the cards.
